All Rise...

Editor's Note

The Charge

"Don't be afraid of me!"

Opening Statement

It has been somewhat forgotten that Sunrise did win an Academy Award
for Best Artistic Quality in the first year (1927-28) that the awards were given
out. Wings—a decidedly inferior
film—was given the more commercial Best Production award and it is that
film that tends to be remembered when best pictures of the year are listed.
Nevertheless, anyone who has had the pleasure of seeing Sunrise knows
that they have seen something special. The film's excellence must be attributed
to its director, F.W. Murnau—a German director previously known for such
films as Nosferatu (1922), The
Last Laugh (1925), and Faust (1926).
William Fox, then head of Fox Pictures, contracted with Murnau to direct a film
for his company and basically gave him carte blanche to develop and complete the
finished product. The result was Sunrise, which cost Fox considerable
money as Murnau spared no expense in trying to put his conceptions on film. The
film opened at the Carthay Circle Theater in Los Angeles and the Roxy Theater
(which William Fox had just bought to serve as a flagship venue for his
company's films) in New York and was highly acclaimed critically, but failed to
recoup its costs at the box office. So despite the film's excellence (it also
won Academy Awards for cinematography and best actress [Janet Gaynor]), its
financial failure cost Murnau complete control on his succeeding films.

Fox has now made Sunrise available on DVD as part of its Studio
Classics series. It cannot be purchased commercially, but can be obtained as a
special offer promotion for a modest postage and handling charge with the
purchase of any three other Studio Classics titles. The offer is only available
to residents of Canada and the United States at this time.

Facts of the Case

A woman from the city who is on vacation in the country attempts to seduce a
young farmer away from his wife. He falls for the city woman and is persuaded by
her to drown his wife so the pair can be together. He goes back to his wife and
invites her to go with him on a trip to the city. This requires a trip by boat,
and it is during this trip that he will drown her. When it comes to the fateful
moment, however, he is unable to go through with the drowning and realizes how
much he loves his wife. The two of them continue on to the city where they find
new hope and happiness in their relationship. While returning home to their
farm, a fierce rain and wind storm catches them on the water and the boat
capsizes, threatening to drown them both.

The Evidence

While the overall credit for the film is rightfully Murnau's, the creative
collaboration of cinematographers Charles Rosher and Karl Struss and the art
direction of Rochus Gliese should be acknowledged, for their contributions were
also key to the film's success. It is also interesting to note that future
director Edgar G. Ulmer (a number of whose films we have reviewed at this site)
was an assistant art director on this film. With this team, Murnau created in
Sunrise perhaps one of the most meticulously designed and lit films ever
made.

Every scene has been thoughtfully composed and lit in such a way as to
inform and enhance our emotional response to it. Murnau's background in the
light and shadow and oblique camera angles of German expressionism is frequently
evident, but he also resorts to camerawork that conveys impressionism or stark
realism at other times. The various nighttime scenes in the country village or
on the adjacent lake are brilliantly realized through moonlit reflections on the
water or bright shafts of light that stab out through open doors and windows.
One of the justly praised sequences (sometimes claimed to be the longest dolly
shot in film, effectively) is the tram ride into the city with the constantly
changing images of the outside surroundings seen in virtually a point-of-view
shot from behind the tram operator's shoulder. The city is a vast, ever-busy
kaleidoscope of people, cars, movement, and bright lights made both exciting and
menacing through a set design that incorporates buildings with deliberately
distorted perspectives both inside and out, small-sized structures in the
background with little people walking in front of them to accentuate the
illusion of depth, and camera work featuring multiple exposures. The rainstorm
generates both excitement and tension as we see the city thoroughfares quickly
empty as the rain intensifies and floods the streets while the idyllic boat ride
home of the man and his wife is almost imperceptively affected at first by the
slowly strengthening wind. Later, as the townspeople search the lake for the
missing wife, there is a striking image of the man's face as the camera
gradually zooms in on it as he looks desperately out from the prow of a boat.
Superimposed images are frequently used to convey the characters' thoughts, but
none is more effective than the image of raging water that gradually develops
over that of the man recumbent in bed as he thinks of drowning his wife.

The principal cast members—George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor, and Margaret
Livingston—all play their parts well, although Gaynor's efforts hardly
seem the stuff of Oscars. That year, one could have made more compelling
arguments for Gloria Swanson's work in Sadie Thompson or Mary Pickford in
My Best Girl. George O'Brien had been a busy actor for much of the 1920s
before gradually trending into work in a number of good B westerns for much of
the 1930s and early 1940s. His last role was in John Ford's Cheyenne Autumn (1964). Margaret
Livingston was also a busy actress in silent films from 1916 on. With the coming
of sound, her work diminished and her last film appearance was in 1934.

One could go on and on about the film's many delights, but you have to
experience it for yourself to really appreciate it. Fox's DVD presentation makes
that a pleasure. The film's original camera negative was lost in a fire in 1937,
but fortunately a diacetate print had been made for the Museum of Modern Art in
1936. From this now fragile print, a new negative was created at the National
Film and Television Archive and this served as the source material for the DVD.
The image is presented in the original 1.20:1 ratio that was necessary to
accommodate the Movietone sound and effects track on the film. It is
characterized by considerable speckling, scratches and nicks, but their impact
is minor. The glory of the film's compositions and lightning is clearly
preserved and after a while, you don't notice the minor imperfections.
Considering the age of the film and the history of its source material, this is
a very good effort indeed. Those who have the fine laserdisc that Fox issued of
this film will find the DVD transfer to be sharper and brighter, but somewhat
darker overall resulting in reduced shadow detail compared to the laser.

Similar to the laser, the DVD presents us with two soundtracks—the
original mono score by Hugo Riesenfeld and a newer stereo score written by
Timothy Brock and played by the Olympic Chamber Orchestra with Brock conducting.
Both scores have their merits. The former contains many fine sound effects that
aren't evidenced in the latter, but it is also subject to age-related hiss and
distortion to some extent. The stereo effort sounds quite in step with the film
and has a more expansive sound as one might expect. Either one provides an
enjoyable way to watch Sunrise.

Fox has managed an impressive array of supplements for a film of this
vintage. The package begins with a thoroughly entertaining and extremely
informative audio commentary by cinematographer John Bailey. He provides
detailed explanations of the lighting, camera movement, and set design decisions
involved in nearly every scene of the film. Bailey also provides an optional
commentary for ten minutes of outtakes from the film, including an extended
version of the opening train scene and the complete master shot of the later
tram sequence. These outtakes aren't in as good condition as the film itself,
but are fascinating to see nonetheless. The film's screenplay and the original
scenario with hand-written annotations by Murnau are also included. Of even more
significance is a 40-minute reconstruction of Murnau's missing follow-up
film—Four Devils—using the original script, sketches,
publicity stills, and set decoration photographs. This provides a real flavour
of how this film may have looked. The Four Devils treatment and
screenplay are also included. The disc is rounded out with four publicity stills
and a theatrical trailer for Sunrise and some restoration notes.

Closing Statement

Sunrise represents the silent film at its zenith. With no more than a
handful of intertitles, the film presents a relatively simple story with such
power and conviction that it never fails to stir one's emotions, no matter how
many times you see it. Fox's treatment on DVD is simply a marvel. Very highly
recommended.

The Verdict

One of those cases that needn't even go to the jury. Not guilty on all
counts.